1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a composition for preventing or treating hyperlipidemia, fatty liver, diabetes or obesity, comprising an extract of the genus Cupressus or a sesquiterpene derivative.
2. Description of the Related Art
Changes in life styles and living environments result in a pathogenic increase of visceral fat obesity in modern people. Frequent occurrence of visceral obesity in turn leads to a rapid increase in development of metabolic syndromes which are accompanied by diabetes, hypertension, lipid metabolism disorders, insulin resistance and the like. These attendant diseases increase a mutual risk factor and are common diseases which are associated with a variety of metabolic changes such as senescence, stress conditions, compromised immune function and the like.
According to the 2005 National Health and Nutrition Survey, 32% of Korean adults over 20-old age were found to suffer from obesity (35.2% of men and 28.3% of women). Recently, the incidence of childhood obesity is also soaring in Korea. According to the 2005 survey data, 11.3% of primary school children, 10.7% of junior high school students, and 16% of senior high school students were diagnosed with obesity (body mass index (BMI)≧25 kg/m2). Further, overweight (BMI ≧23 kg/m2) or 17% of obese juveniles showed metabolic syndrome.
Then, such an increase in the overweight and obese population contributes to a rise in the prevalence rate of chronic diseases. For example, according to the 2005 survey data, the prevalence rates of hypertension (30.2% of male and 25.6% of female), diabetes (9.0% of male and 7.2% of female), and hypercholesterolemia (7.5% of male and 8.8% of female) in Korean people over the age of 30 were significantly higher than that in other countries.
Based on the survey data, obesity may result in an estimated socioeconomic loss of approximately 1.017 trillion won in 2001. To this end, the Korean Health Plan 2010 was released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare as its public health policy. According to this white paper, main goals were established to accomplish an adult obesity rate of less than 20% and a juvenile obesity rate of less than 15%. As an implementation strategy to achieve these goals, an attempt was tried to find a precise definition and measurement method of obesity.
The best therapeutic effects on obesity can be achieved only with a combination of diet therapy, exercise therapy and behavior modification therapy. However, these therapeutic methods require plenty of time and effort in conjunction with difficulty in practice. For these reasons, anti-obesity drugs or diet products are widely used. However, orlistat, which is currently used as an anti-obesity drug, suffers from adverse side effects such as steatorrhea (fatty stools), enteric gas production, and flatus. Another anti-obesity drug, sibutramine, is also known to have adverse side effects such as headache, thirst, anorexia, insomnia, constipation and the like. Further, orlistat inhibits absorption of vitamin D and E, whereas administration of phentermine and sibutramine results in adverse side effects such as increased heart rate/palpitations, vertigo, and the like.
Recently, values and demands for herbal or natural medicines are increasing in view of adverse side effects of synthetic drugs and limitations of Western medicine in treating chronic diseases. To cope with this trend, the present inventors have screened an anti-obesity substance from a variety of wild or volunteer plants and then gave attention to Cupressus funebris. 
Cupressus funebris is an evergreen tall tree that belongs to the genus Cupressus, which is widely distributed throughout warm temperate regions lower than 2,000 m from central and southwestern China to Vietnam. Its scientific name is also called Chamaecypris funebris and it's common name is Chinese weeping cypress.
It can grow in very acid sandy or clay soil. It requires well-drained and dry soil but it cannot grow well in the shade. It is a medium-sized coniferous tree growing to 20-35 m tall, with a trunk up to 2 m diameter. The leaves are scale-like up to 5 mm long on strong lead shoots.
It has been used in the treatment of bleeding piles or excessive menstrual flow in China (J. A. Duke and E. S. Ayensu, Medcinal Plants of China, pp. 705, Reference Publications, Inc., 1985). It has been used in the manufacture of perfume, ingredient of essential oil, perfume of soap and shampoo in Vietnam (Luu and Thomas, 2004. p. 20-22, Conifers of Vietnam, Darwin Initiative). Essential oils by steam distillation of the wood of Cupressus funebris have been used in the ingredient of perfume, and there are a lot of monoterpenes in the leaf but the wood mainly contains sesquiterpenes. Sesquiterpenes are a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and have the molecular formula C15H24. Although sesquiterpenes comprise 0, 1, 2 or 3 rings, the major sesquiterpenes in Cupressus funebris are tricylic compounds. There are many kinds of sesquiterpenes in the wood of Cupressus funebris such as thujopsene (29.9%), alpha-cedrene (26.4%), beta-cedrene (9.2%), cedrol (9.6%), widdrol (9.5%), alpha-funebrene (0.7%), beta-funebrene (0.2%), cedryl acetate (0.1%) (Duquesnoy et al., 2006, Flavour and Fragrance Journal, 21: 453-457; Adams, 1991, Modern Methods of Plant Analysis New Series, vol. 12, pp. 159-173).
It was also reported that many kinds of plants belonging to the genus Cupressus such as Cupressus macnabiana (Laurence G. Cool, Phytochemistry, 58(6):969-972 (2001)), Cupressus nootkatensis (Erdtman, H. et al., Acta Chem. Scand., 11:1157-1161 (1957)), Cupressus sempervirens (Seyyed Ahmad Emami et al., Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2(2):103-108 (2006)), Cupressus macrocarpa (Srikrishna et al., Synthetic Communications, 37(17):2855-2860 (2007)), Cupressus bakeri (Koon-Sin Ngo et al., J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1, 189-194 (2000)) include sesquiterpenes.
Various tricyclic sesquiterpene derivatives can be synthesized by an organic synthetic method, and most of the derivatives can be synthesized by semi-synthetic method. Representative synthetic or semi-synthetic sesquiterpene derivatives are cedrene epoxide (C15H24O), cedryl formate (C16H26O2), methyl cedryl ether (C16H28O), cloven (C15H24), neoclovene (C15H24), 8(15)-cedren-9-ol (C15H24O), sativene (C15H24), epicedrol (C15H26O), methyl cedryl ketone (C17H26O) and cedrenol (C15H24O).
U.S. Pat. No. 7,071,195 discloses a method for treating obesity with amine or amide derivatives acting as ligands for neuropeptide Y Y5. U.S. Pat. No. 702,722 discloses a thiazolidinedione derivative for treating diabetes, hyperlipidemia or obesity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,987,131 describes a composition for treating hyperlipidemia including phenylacetylglutamine, phenylacetylisoglutamine or phenylacetic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,967 suggests apobec-1 protein as a target molecule for treating arteriosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, obesity and diabetes.
Throughout this application, various publications and patents are referred and citations are provided in parentheses. The disclosures of these publications and patents in their entities are hereby incorporated by references into this application in order to fully describe this invention and the state of the art to which this invention pertains.